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A bit annoying that Laak didnt challenge that call when he served at break point down at 3-4. He had made a stupid challenge earlier in the game that was never going his way and then didnt challenge the unreturned serve which turned out to be in and lost the point and was broken. Not saying it would have changed the result but a piece of poor decision making by him when he discussed it with the umpire and then decided to challenge and was told it was too late.

Btw at the handshake at the end Laak looked 2-3 inches taller than de minaur (is it just me or is it annoying that the aussie commentators are calling him 'the demon') and he is listed as 6'1" on wiki. Surely de minaur is less than his listed 6 foot ?

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A bit annoying that Laak didnt challenge that call when he served at break point down at 3-4. He had made a stupid challenge earlier in the game that was never going his way and then didnt challenge the unreturned serve which turned out to be in and lost the point and was broken. Not saying it would have changed the result but a piece of poor decision making by him when he discussed it with the umpire and then decided to challenge and was told it was too late.

Btw at the handshake at the end Laak looked 2-3 inches taller than de minaur (is it just me or is it annoying that the aussie commentators are calling him 'the demon') and he is listed as 6'1" on wiki. Surely de minaur is less than his listed 6 foot ?

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A bit annoying that Laak didnt challenge that call when he served at break point down at 3-4. He had made a stupid challenge earlier in the game that was never going his way and then didnt challenge the unreturned serve which turned out to be in and lost the point and was broken. Not saying it would have changed the result but a piece of poor decision making by him when he discussed it with the umpire and then decided to challenge and was told it was too late.

Btw at the handshake at the end Laak looked 2-3 inches taller than de minaur (is it just me or is it annoying that the aussie commentators are calling him 'the demon') and he is listed as 6'1" on wiki. Surely de minaur is less than his listed 6 foot ?

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A bit annoying that Laak didnt challenge that call when he served at break point down at 3-4. He had made a stupid challenge earlier in the game that was never going his way and then didnt challenge the unreturned serve which turned out to be in and lost the point and was broken. Not saying it would have changed the result but a piece of poor decision making by him when he discussed it with the umpire and then decided to challenge and was told it was too late.

Btw at the handshake at the end Laak looked 2-3 inches taller than de minaur (is it just me or is it annoying that the aussie commentators are calling him 'the demon') and he is listed as 6'1" on wiki. Surely de minaur is less than his listed 6 foot ?

The commentator (robbie koenig i believe) said it was confirmed by hawkeye as being 1mm in. I don't think Laak was hitting the ball hard enough to take it away from De Minaur but would have been good to see it finish without a wrong call

Well, he clearly has more power than both Simon and De Minaur. Other than that I agree with you though. His backhand tends to be a weakness especially when trying to be offensive; it's certainly better under pressure than when he has time. I personally love it when player use the slice effectively as Laaksonen did a fair few times today, but in his case it's clearly a result of weakness, or rather lack of confidence in his top spin backhand.

Shame he couldn't pull off the upset, but if he plays to his potential more consistently, then he shouldn't be struggling in challengers anymore.

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I only watched last several games. Alex was really tired and understandably so. Not sure how it got dragged to 5 from 2 sets up. Probably for the same reason.
Hard to see him be able to recover for his next match, but the kid is a fighter if ever I've seen one. He'll try his best.

There is a reason, the umpire said it: "you have to challenge right away".

You're not allowed to approach the net and check the ball mark before challenging and that's what Laaks did. Even so imo the ump should've allowed him... But I only watched the last few games, perhaps it wasn't the first time Laaksonen did that.

We should be appreciative of Federer though, because we will never see anything like him again. The fact he can still compete for slams ever after the erosion of his physical skills is really a greater testament to the natural talent he has than the period of time when he was dominating the tour.

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There is a reason, the umpire said it: "you have to challenge right away".

You're not allowed to approach the net and check the ball mark before challenging and that's what Laaks did. Even so imo the ump should've allowed him... But I only watched the last few games, perhaps it wasn't the first time Laaksonen did that.

False. Doing that takes too much time. The chair umpire is allowed to deny a challenge, if the challenge is not made "in a timely manner". Now, judging what exactly constitutes a "timely manner" is subjective from the chair ump obviously, but that is what the rulebook says.

Like I said, I don't exactly agree with this umpire in this particular call, but what he did can be defended from the rulebook's point of view.

We should be appreciative of Federer though, because we will never see anything like him again. The fact he can still compete for slams ever after the erosion of his physical skills is really a greater testament to the natural talent he has than the period of time when he was dominating the tour.

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False. Doing that takes too much time. The chair umpire is allowed to deny a challenge, if the challenge is not made "in a timely manner". Now, judging what exactly constitutes a "timely manner" is subjective from the chair ump obviously, but that is what the rulebook says.

Like I said, I don't exactly agree with this umpire in this particular call, but what he did can be defended from the rulebook's point of view.

One of the notes:
"- The Chair Umpire may only refuse the Electronic Review if he/she believes that the challenge was not made in a timely manner. Otherwise, the Chair Umpire will use the Electronic Review when there is a player/team challenge. The result of the Electronic Review is final and unappealable."

I would assume that this is a general rule for the challenge system everywhere, not just in Wimbledon. That's what I've always heard from commentators too.

We should be appreciative of Federer though, because we will never see anything like him again. The fact he can still compete for slams ever after the erosion of his physical skills is really a greater testament to the natural talent he has than the period of time when he was dominating the tour.

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As mentioned above Laaksonen has surely a lot more power than other mentioned players.
His forehand is huge and can be played flat but also with heavy spin, his fitness is great, his serve is solid.

I saw a lot of Laaksonen's matches, also a few live here in Basel.
His mentality is just not there, that's a bit sad to see because his potential is and was always there,
especially since 2016.

De Minaur was quite the opposite today, rather passive but his mentality was just perfect, it was nearly always clear that he will win in the 5th set although Laaksonen played better in sets 3 & 4. For Laaksonen Best-of-5 is clearly better because it opens things up, but he needs to raise his mentality and focus. At the moment he wins when he is clearly the better player and when both play on the same level (more or less) he loses most of those matches.

Still: A fine tournament from Laaksonen, four wins and a good fight today. Hopefully he can have a great 2019.

We will continue to simulate the season with the second Grand Slam of 2020 - Roland Garros. The draw for the events will be completely randomized. Qualifiers are randomized as well and the WCs are chosen by me.
ALL-NEW - You may only vote ONCE EVERY TWO HOURS this week AND matches are best of...

We will continue to simulate the season with the clay ATP250s in Stuttgart and s-Hertogenbosch. The draw for the events will be completely randomized. Qualifiers are randomized as well and the WCs will be chosen by me, if not there aren't enough requests.
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